New York, NY

July 2012

Though he spent his childhood days working on a farm close to his Flemington, New Jersey, home, Bill Dorrler’s path to food wasn’t direct. He graduated from college with an accounting degree, but after a two-year desk job, Dorrler walked into Café Cucina in Bridgewater, and asked for a job.

Dorrler started working the pasta station, and in less than a year, he was the restaurant’s sous chef. A few years later, Dorrler moved to Pennsylvania to join the team at the William Penn Inn as chef de cuisine. By 2004, Dorrler had turned his attention to Italian cuisine, becoming the executive chef at Ciao in Basking Ridge.

In 2007, Dorrler met acclaimed Italian Chef Michael White. The encounter inspired Jersey boy Dorrler to move back to his home state, where he served as opening executive chef at Due Terre and Due Mari, both of which were rated “Best New Restaurant in New Jersey” and received high praise from The New York Times and The Star-Ledger. He now heads the kitchen of White’s Osteria Morini, where his straight-from-the-earth cooking philosophy complements the rustic cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna.